Lt. Darrell Reider is the commander of the criminal investigation unit and his job just got easier, thanks to crime mapping online. According to the map, Swatara Township police is the only police department in Central Pennsylvania that is using RAIDS Online to fight crime.

“It is going to give us the ability to be able to predict where a crime is going to occur before they occur and have resources to those areas,” said Chief Jason Umberger.

The map allows police to choose any type of crime.

“These are all of our burglaries in Swatara Township over the last six months,” Umberger explained.

The system updates every 24 hours and everything he can see, you can too. Not only would you be able to see all the crime that’s going on in your neighborhood, but if you want to learn more about car thefts, just click on the icon and you can find out the date and exactly where it is happening.

The map showed us that there had been several car break-ins around North 66th Street.

The crime mapping is a free service for residents and police.

“Our hope is once informed, they will take steps to make themselves less vulnerable to criminal activity,” said Umberger.

Police believe the better they are informed, the better they can serve you.

Copyright 2013 byWGAL All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.